diff --git a/quixote/demo/root.ptl b/quixote/demo/root.ptl
index 4073899..994cff9 100644
--- a/quixote/demo/root.ptl
+++ b/quixote/demo/root.ptl
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 """The root directory for the Quixote demo.
 """
 import time
+import base64
+
 from quixote import get_response
 from quixote.directory import Directory, export, subdir
 from quixote.errors import PublishError
@@ -121,11 +123,11 @@ class DynamicDirectory(Directory):
 
 
 
-FAVICON = """\
+FAVICON = base64.b64decode("""\
 AAABAAEAEBAQAAEABAAoAQAAFgAAACgAAAAQAAAAIAAAAAEABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
 AAAAAADJZmEA4KilAMJQSwDZko8Aujo0AOi9uwDRfHgA9+npAP///wDw1NIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiSQDiIiIiIiGRYSIiIiIYkRFiIiIiFQlhk
 RYiIiIBAeGRAiIiIFEE2aUQYiIhkSHV4RGiIiGRIiIhEaIiIZEiIiERoiIiUSYiJRJiIiIZDiING
 iIiIh2RlEmeIiIiIiBYYiIiIiIiIiIiIiIgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
-""".decode('base64')
+""")
diff --git a/quixote/util.py b/quixote/util.py
index 7006fbd..487e5ba 100644
--- a/quixote/util.py
+++ b/quixote/util.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ See doc/static-files.txt for examples of their use.
 import sys
 import os
 import time
-import binascii
+import base64
 import mimetypes
 import urllib
 import xmlrpclib
@@ -28,9 +28,7 @@ from quixote.html import htmltext, TemplateIO
 from quixote.http_response import Stream
 
 def _encode_base64(s):
-    s = binascii.b2a_base64(s).strip('=\n')
-    s = s.replace('+', '-').replace('/', '_') # URL safe
-    return s
+    return base64.urlsafe_b64encode(s).rstrip('=\n')
 
 if hasattr(os, 'urandom'):
     # available in Python 2.4 and also works on win32